Journal

Revival: The 2002 - Chapter I

Classic cars hit a soft spot for most people, whether they consider themselves gearheads or mere admirers. For some, they just enjoy the character of an older vehicle. For others, though, it's the quest to replace that one car that they or a family member once owned long ago. It becomes personal and the search comes with a lot of emotional backstory.

With that said, we would like to introduce our first Revival project. This 2002tii was brought to us by a customer who had finally found an extension of a gem from his childhood. His father owned a 2002 way back when, and he decided he wanted to recreate that special car for himself, but in his own taste.

This car was by no means in bad shape, but there was a fair amount of clean up that needed to be done mechanically and cosmetically. The owner's vision was to bring it back to a more period correct look, while still keeping it sporty with his existing mods. This meant replacing the wheels to better suit the Alpina flares, removing the Alpina badging, and cleaning up some fiberglass damage, for starters.

Below you will find a large gallery of photos, documenting the progress of this 02's Revival thus far. We have split these updates into chapters, so here you will see the work done up until the next phase: paint, bodywork, wheels, and the finished product. Work has been underway over the last several months to prepare this car for the road, and we are excited to show you what's next.

Part I

Our Revivalist Dustin spent some time trimming away at the car's exterior cosmetics: bumpers and old hardware. As you can see, the bumpers needed to be freshened up, and hardware obviously had to be replaced. There were also small areas of fiberglass cracking and damage that we ultimately addressed later on in the process.

With the bumpers off the car, the exterior was done for the time being. Dustin then moved on to the engine bay, where he removed the covers and lines that need to be addressed. Many of the rubber lines were age cracked, while the valve cover and intake just looked tired. Those will be sent out to be refinished for a brand new look. As he worked farther down, he also noted that there was quite a bit of residual staining on the lower end of the motor. This meant that a thorough clean up of the undercarriage was added to the list ensure that there were no active leaks.

The first small phase of work was now complete while we waited for the parts to be refinished. In the meantime, the owner expressed that he would like to choose wheels for the car to get the project rolling faster--no pun intended.

Part II

Once the engine covers returned from Renewed Finishes, as well as replacement maintenance parts, Dustin dug back into the car. Replacing soft lines and key parts, such as the starter, ignition coil, and more. The quality of the work done by Renewed Finishes is top tier, and the fresh parts instantly brightened up the engine bay.

That does it for this first chapter of the 2002's journey back to the road. Keep an eye out for the next round of updates coming very soon. Thanks for following along!